Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right: High School Football in Illinois

Chapter 6: Midsized Schools

6 Midsized Schools Addison Driscoll: Eight Titles, Seven in a Row Football has always been Mike Burzawa’s passion. But it was Rod Molek’s successful baseball program and the promise of a good education that lured Burzawa to Driscoll Catholic in Addison.The football team had experienced only three winning seasons from 1974 to 1988.Then Gene Nudo arrived and the game changed forever. Nudo was a salesman—he once was named Rookie of the Year while working for Kellogg’s food division—and a journeyman coach who assisted at Ridgewood High School in Norridge, his alma mater, guided the River Grove Cowboys to the national semi-pro championship in 1984 and seconds in 1985 and 1986, worked in the Arena League, and served as a volunteer on Coach Rich Marks’ staff at Driscoll. After he was hired to succeed Marks as head coach in 1989, he took the program on a meteoric rise that put Driscoll’s name on the map.The Highlanders qualified for the state playoff in Nudo’s first year, advanced to the state semifinals in his second season, and went 14–0 in 1991 en route to the school’s first state championship. Burzawa was one of the leaders of the team. He and Mike Kamienski each rushed for more than 1,000 yards.They ran behind an offensive line that called themselves “the Overlords”—center Tom Ciccone,guards Joe Angelino and Joe Coglianese,tackles Dan Hennessey and Dave Sciortino,and tight end Rich Marks.Coglianese,also an outstanding linebacker, was singled out as the Player of the Year in the conference. Quarterback John Mika passed for 800 yards. “Nudo set the tone for the football program. He established the winning tradition,” said Burzawa,who coached Driscoll to a 41–1 record and three state championships before leaving for Evanston after the 2007 season.“We’d talk a lot about what happened in 1991, how much fun it was. It was a lot of work but he made it fun.” The 1991 team had a motto. Nudo wrote it on the chalkboard before the first playoff game. It said,“Refuse to lose.”It was written inside a big heart.The motto was written on the 1991 state championship rings. “I coached against them when I was at Ridgewood and I noticed there was a lot of talent there and they wanted to win but they didn’t know how to win.They were struggling to find an identity,” Nudo said. He hit the ground running. His staff included friends he had known for a long time—Frank Battaglia, Mike Loconsole, Steve Ache, and Larry Orrico, a former quarterback at Ridgewood. The freshman squad, led by Burzawa, lost only one game. Nudo could see that it was a special group.“Everything was lined up,” he said. 170   / Dusty, Deek, and Mr. Do-Right He also gave the program a fresh look. The Chicago Bruisers semi-pro team had gone out of business. Nudo packed up the equipment and took it to Driscoll— helmets,pads,videotaping system and all.The Highlanders used to be called“the egg yolks”because they wore yellow jerseys with black pants. No longer. Nudo switched to a Pittsburgh Steeler appearance, black-on-black. Nobody laughed after 1991. Nudo wasn’t finished. He installed a structured off-season conditioning program, a pro-style offense, and a 4-4 defense. And he recruited within the building. Of the 185 boys enrolled in the school at the time, he persuaded 120 of them to come out for football in his first season.To promote the program, he published a media guide for the local press. “I knew we were on the cusp of something good and I wanted people to take notice of it,” Nudo said.“I liked working with kids. I wondered,‘How good could we be if we could work with the kids every day?’ I felt we weren’t giving them enough, that we could always give them more.The greatest crime against youth is to underchallenge them.” The 1991 team trailed Elmwood Park 13–0 in its opener, then rallied to win 28–13. They beat Immaculate Conception (IC) and Tony Mondragon twice in legendary coach Jack Lewis’ last season, 14–7 after trailing 7–0 at halftime and 10–0 in the second round of the playoff before a crowd of 6,000.“IC was the second...